Curriculum Development Project4th Grade Media Literacy
Overall Description of Project:
Education is socially and historically constructed. With that said, it is imperative that students are aware of the power of language and how the intended audience constructs meaning from such messages. By exploring media literacy, students will see the world around them through a critical lens. This will help them become active thinkers of their own learning, rather than passive recipients of knowledge.
Aim:
To analyze media through a critical lens.
Goals
Objectives
To introduce students to media literacy and techniques used in various forms to analyze, determine, and evaluate messages.
TLW analyze features of different media types using a graphic organizer. TLW determine purpose of media literacy and intended audience. TLW evaluate informative/persuasive techniques used in media literacy.
For students to understand how messages and meaning are constructed using media language.
TLW create an advertisement using persuasive media techniques. TLW write a persuasive description aimed at a specific audience for their advertisement.
Background Information Including Concepts and Facts:
Concepts
Basic Ideas
Author’s Purpose
The writer's purpose may be to inform, entertain, or to share a personal experience. At times it may be manipulative, as in propaganda or advertising, or may be more straightforward. Other purposes in media may include persuading for political, commercial, educational, artistic, or moral purposes. Students will determine if types of media literacy are trying to manipulate our opinions and actions and question truthfulness of statements.
Theme
Determine if there is a common idea that is shared between the fiction, non-fiction, and visual pieces.
Intended Audience
Determine if the audience of the media representation is targeted at individuals, groups, communities, or bodies of decision makers. In addition, students will analyze if the intended audience influences the design and visual aspects of the media representation.
“Media literacy is the ability to sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us every day. It’s the ability to bring critical thinking skills to bear on all media…” (Tallim, 2010). “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action…Critical thinking is being responsive to variable subject matter, issues, and purposes…” (The Critical Thinking Community, 2011).
Philosophical/Theoretical Basis:
Our curriculum is based on a blending of social reconstruction/postmodern and experimentalism philosophies. The students will acquire the strategies necessary to critically explore the world around them, in this case, different types of media literacy. Students will question and negotiate their own learning experiences. The instructional approach for this unit allows the students to critically explore different types of media literacy through: inquiry-based, discussion-based, and problem-solving models. Subsequently, another instructional approach for this particular topic resembles the direct instruction model discussed in Hlebowitsh (2005) in which the teacher starts the lesson with teacher-directed instruction, followed by guided practice, teacher feedback, independent practice, and eventually mastery of an idea/skill (p.164). In addition, our curriculum is based on a balanced literacy approach, which develops the skills of reading, writing, thinking, speaking, and listening for all students through four interventions:
Modeled Reading (Reading Aloud) and Modeled Writing
Shared Reading and Shared Writing
Guided Reading and Guided Writing
Independent Reading and Independent Writing
Experience:
An example of an ‘experience’ that might be arranged for students in this curriculum:
Students will have a video conference with an author of one of the books/songs used for this unit to help students view the differences between their diverse interpretations and the author’s actual purpose of their work. It will be a time for the students to ask critical questions and share their analyses of the respective text/song.
Students develop a cereal box and write an expository persuasive essay using the techniques discussed to persuade their targeted audience.
Students develop an advertisement using the techniques discussed to persuade their targeted audience, either for their created cereal box, or for a product/location of their choice (i.e. visiting a particular country for a planned vacation). Students can also take an advertisement/commercial and recreate it to exhibit the hidden message/persuasive techniques behind the original one.
Examples:
Examples of Literacy Activities:
Word Detective- A game that allows students to pretend to be detectives as they look through their text for clues to solve a mystery. In this case, the students will critically analyze books, musical lyrics, and television programs to determine how they use language, construct representations, and the hidden messages they are conveying.
I think…- A writing activity that allows students to rewrite their interpretation of a text. In this case, the students will evaluate a text and rewrite it to give it a different meaning or to exhibit the hidden message behind the original text.
Analysis Project- A project that will allow students to choose a type of media literacy of their interest, apply the learned critical skills to analyze it, and create a presentation (drawing, powerpoint, video, etcetera).
Author’s Chair- A time for the students to share their ideas with each other, ask questions, make comments, and raise concerns with the activities and unit we are working on.
Gallery Walk- Students will bring in an image (drawing, painting, picture...) that they feel is provocative and will set up a gallery walk in the classroom. Every student will have a set of index cards to make a comment/question on each other's media examples. Subsequently, the students will create a discussion to share their interpretations of the media examples. They are to use supporting evidence from the image to support their reasoning.
Media Literacy Resources:
The materials that will be used will be culturally relevant. Students will also have much input in choosing some of the resources for the curriculum.
Examples of TV media watched by children: Disney shows, Novelas (soap operas), News channels, commercials, and other student favorite television programs.
Key Content Standards:
4th grade TEKS
(14) Reading/Media Literacy. Students use comprehension skills to analyze how words, images, graphics, and sounds work together in various forms to impact meaning. Students continue to apply earlier standards with greater depth in increasingly more complex texts. Students are expected to: (A) explain the positive and negative impacts of advertisement techniques used in various genres of media to impact consumer behavior; (B) explain how various design techniques used in media influence the message (e.g., pacing, close-ups, sound effects); and (C) compare various written conventions used for digital media (e.g. language in an informal e-mail vs. language in a web-based news article).
(18) Writing/Expository and Procedural Texts. Students write expository and procedural or work-related texts to communicate ideas and information to specific audiences for specific purposes. Students are expected to: (A) create brief compositions that: (i) establish a central idea in a topic sentence; (ii) include supporting sentences with simple facts, details, and explanations; and (iii) contain a concluding statement;
(19) Writing/Persuasive Texts. Students write persuasive texts to influence the attitudes or actions of a specific audience on specific issues. Students are expected to write persuasive essays for appropriate audiences that establish a position and use supporting details.
References: Bazerman, C. (2010). Analyzing the author's purpose and technique. In The informed writer: Using sources in the disciplines (pp. 103-126). doi:writing.colostate.edu/textbooks/informedwriter/chapter7.pdf
Hlebowitsh, P.S. (2005). Designing the school curriculum. United States of America: Pearson Education, Inc.
Independent Media Institute (2006). Identifying your target audience. The Spin Project, 1-2. DOI: www.spinproject.org/article.php?id=191
Overall Description of Project:
Education is socially and historically constructed. With that said, it is imperative that students are aware of the power of language and how the intended audience constructs meaning from such messages. By exploring media literacy, students will see the world around them through a critical lens. This will help them become active thinkers of their own learning, rather than passive recipients of knowledge.Aim:
To analyze media through a critical lens.TLW determine purpose of media literacy and intended audience.
TLW evaluate informative/persuasive techniques used in media literacy.
TLW write a persuasive description aimed at a specific audience for their advertisement.
Background Information Including Concepts and Facts:
Other purposes in media may include persuading for political, commercial, educational, artistic, or moral purposes. Students will determine if types of media literacy are trying to manipulate our opinions and actions and question truthfulness of statements.
“Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action…Critical thinking is being responsive to variable subject matter, issues, and purposes…” (The Critical Thinking Community, 2011).
Philosophical/Theoretical Basis:
Our curriculum is based on a blending of social reconstruction/postmodern and experimentalism philosophies. The students will acquire the strategies necessary to critically explore the world around them, in this case, different types of media literacy. Students will question and negotiate their own learning experiences. The instructional approach for this unit allows the students to critically explore different types of media literacy through: inquiry-based, discussion-based, and problem-solving models.Subsequently, another instructional approach for this particular topic resembles the direct instruction model discussed in Hlebowitsh (2005) in which the teacher starts the lesson with teacher-directed instruction, followed by guided practice, teacher feedback, independent practice, and eventually mastery of an idea/skill (p.164).
In addition, our curriculum is based on a balanced literacy approach, which develops the skills of reading, writing, thinking, speaking, and listening for all students through four interventions:
Experience:
An example of an ‘experience’ that might be arranged for students in this curriculum:
Examples:
Examples of Literacy Activities:
Media Literacy Resources:
The materials that will be used will be culturally relevant. Students will also have much input in choosing some of the resources for the curriculum.
Examples of children’s literature:
Kidz Bop (pop cultural music)
http://www.kidzbop.com/music/kidz-bop/Kidz-Bop-21
*All songs will be selected by students and approved by the teacher.
Disney shows, Novelas (soap operas), News channels, commercials, and other student favorite television programs.
Key Content Standards:
4th grade TEKS
(14) Reading/Media Literacy. Students use comprehension skills to analyze how words, images, graphics, and sounds work together in various forms to impact meaning. Students continue to apply earlier standards with greater depth in increasingly more complex texts. Students are expected to:
(A) explain the positive and negative impacts of advertisement techniques used in various genres of media to impact consumer behavior;
(B) explain how various design techniques used in media influence the message (e.g., pacing, close-ups, sound effects); and
(C) compare various written conventions used for digital media (e.g. language in an informal e-mail vs. language in a web-based news article).
(18) Writing/Expository and Procedural Texts. Students write expository and procedural or work-related texts to communicate ideas and information to specific audiences for specific purposes. Students are expected to:
(A) create brief compositions that:
(i) establish a central idea in a topic sentence;
(ii) include supporting sentences with simple facts, details, and explanations; and
(iii) contain a concluding statement;
(19) Writing/Persuasive Texts. Students write persuasive texts to influence the attitudes or actions of a specific audience on specific issues. Students are expected to write persuasive essays for appropriate audiences that establish a position and use supporting details.
References:
Bazerman, C. (2010). Analyzing the author's purpose and technique. In The informed writer: Using sources in the disciplines (pp. 103-126).
doi:writing.colostate.edu/textbooks/informedwriter/chapter7.pdf
Hlebowitsh, P.S. (2005). Designing the school curriculum. United States of America: Pearson Education, Inc.
Independent Media Institute (2006). Identifying your target audience. The Spin Project, 1-2. DOI: www.spinproject.org/article.php?id=191
Pungente, J. & Blake, D. (2010). Media literacy key concepts. Retrieved from http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/media_literacy/key_concept.cfm
Saskatoon Public Schools. (2004-2009). What is balanced literacy? Retrieved from http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/pd/instr/strats/balancedliteracy/index.html
Tallim, J. (2010). What is media literacy? Retrieved from http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/media_literacy/what_is_media_literacy.cfm
Texas Education Association. (2010). 19 TAC chapter 110, subchapter A. Retrieved from http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter110/ch110a.html
The Critical Thinking Community. (2011). Defining critical thinking. Retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766